Waste Wars

by Fran Withrow 06.2025

It is disheartening but important to read “Waste Wars,” Alexander Clapp’s revealing look at what happens to the things we so blithely toss into our recycling bins. The truth is not at all what you would expect.

Clapp spent two years traveling the globe, learning the dirty secrets of the waste trade. Little did we know that first world countries have spent decades sending trash to poorer nations, as it is cheaper to do that than to take care of it themselves. He learns that single use plastics, along with our broken electronics, can get shipped to places like South America, Jakarta, Turkey, and Ghana. Theoretically, these countries are accepting our trash to be reused or repurposed. But what’s really happening?

Not recycling, in large part. Many countries are burning or burying the waste (including toxic waste) we first world countries produce. Our “throwaway culture” makes it easy, and the plastic industry helps by “deliberately rendering their own products obsolete or useless.”

But it’s not just a plastic problem. Clapp says electronic waste is “currently the world’s fastest-growing type of garbage.” And while some of it may be reused, much is not. Ghana, for instance, accepts e-waste to strip it of any valuable materials and then burn the rest, out in the open air, spewing toxic fumes as they do so.

The shipping industry is a concern as well. Ships sent to breakdown yards are stripped of valuables and then broken apart. But that’s not easily done. In the Mediterranean, men with very little training dismantle these giant ships, often suffering severe injuries and frequently losing their lives. First world cruise ships, for instance, say they follow safety protocols in disposal, but that’s difficult to do when ships can be sold from country to country and travel in and out of international waters. Follow up is challenging, to say the least.

Still, it was Clapp’s description of plastic waste that haunts me. While other materials truly can be reused, like steel and paper, plastic is such a mixed material that you cannot melt it down to just one type of plastic for reuse. Thus it is cheaper to make a new plastic fork or water bottle than to attempt to reuse old plastic.  

Clapp visits  two “trash towns” in Indonesia that are drowning in our plastic. These two towns receive dump trucks of plastic waste every day, and it is piled as high as two stories around the area. People spread the plastic out to dry, and then sell it to tofu and cracker factories to be burnt as fuel. Not all plastic is burnt at a high enough temperature to prevent toxins from becoming airborne, though, and liquid waste finds its way into nearby waterways, and then out into the Pacific Ocean.

This is discouraging, to say the least, but we can at least do small things, like avoiding bottled water and single serving utensils. There is also a zero-waste shop in Bon Air, “Eco-Inspired,” https://www.livingecoinspired.com/ which is leading the Richmond area in reducing unnecessary waste.

It’s a start.